Giro d'Italia 2024

Find out about the latest news, information, route details, contenders, and more as we build up to the first men's Grand Tour of the 2024 season

Jump to:

Giro d'Italia

Dates 4 May - 26 May
Race Length 3,331 kms
Race Category Elite Men

Updated: 2 May 2024

Giro d'Italia 2024 overview

First established back in 1909, around six years after the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia is one of three Grand Tours on the calendar, and the first of the season.

While nothing can touch the Tour in terms of scale, the Giro has no shortage of prestige, with the maglia rosa (pink jersey) one of the most iconic and coveted prizes in professional cycling.

The 2024 Giro d'Italia will be the 107th edition of the so-called 'corsa rosa' and will take place from 4-26 May. The race will comprise 21 stages, with a mixture of mountains, time trials, flat terrain, and everything else Italy has to offer in a true test of a bike rider's all-round credentials.

Snowy mountains are part of the test for any pink jersey hopeful

While the Vuelta a España tends to throw up punchier terrain, the Giro d'Italia often plays host to some of the most gruelling stages you'll see in Grand Tour racing, with long days in the saddle and epic helpings of climbs in the Alps and Dolomites. The test is made harder by the weather, which is unpredictable in May, when rain can bucket down and where snow can still render some of the mountains unscalable.

The rider who comes through those three weeks in the shortest overall time will be crowned the winner and will get to lift the famous Trofeo Senza Fine - the 'infinite' spiralling golden trophy.

Giro d'Italia 2024 key information

When is the Giro d’Italia 2024? The 2024 edition of the Giro d’Italia will start on Saturday 4 May and run until Sunday, 26 May.

Where does the Giro d’Italia 2024 take place? The Giro d’Italia takes place in Italy, starting in Piemonte and finishing in Rome. The race heads south hugging the west coast, before nipping over to the east and heading up the opposite coast to the Alps, where the main mountain stages take place in the final week.

Who won the Giro d’Italia in 2023? The 2023 edition was won by Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), with the Slovenian taking the pink jersey from Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in a dramatic penultimate-day mountain time trial on Monte Lussari.

How old is the Giro d'Italia? The Giro d'Italia was first held in 1909. The 2024 edition is the 107th.

Who won the first Giro d’Italia? Luigi Ganna was the first ever winner of the Giro d'Italia in 1909, winning three stages en route to the overall title. Ganna immortalised both himself and the tortuous race he had just won with six simple words, “Mi fa tanto male il culo!” or, “My ass hurts so much!”

Who has the most wins at the Giro d’Italia? Three riders stand at the top of the all-time honours list, with five victories each for Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi, and Eddy Merckx. They claimed their fifth titles, respectively, in 1933, 1953, and 1974.

Giro d'Italia 2024 route: Lots of time trialling, lighter on climbing and distance

The 2024 Giro d’Italia route will feature 68.2km of individual time trialling, six summit finishes, stages inspired by Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo, and a lighter touch.

The full route for the 107th edition of the corsa rosa was officially unveiled in Trento on October 13, with organisers RCS Sport rolling out a 3,321km journey that starts in Turin on 4 May and finishes, 21 stages and two rest days later, in Rome on 26 May.

The headline news is that the Giro d’Italia has stuck to its guns as the most time trial-friendly of the three Grand Tours. The total distance against the clock of 68.2km – spread across two tests in weeks one and two – may be a couple of kilometres short of the 2023 total, but then the final TT there was on a mountain, whereas the terrain here is generally flat, tilting the balance in favour of the rouleurs.

That theme is reinforced by a relatively light helping of mountains, although there are still six summit finishes. Last year, those 70km against the clock were balanced out by a savage final week, but, while the high mountains are similarly backloaded in the 2024 route, there are simply not as many of them; the total elevation gain for the Giro as a whole is 42,900 metres, compared to 51,000m in the past two years.

The map for the 2024 Giro d'Italia route

It’s also interesting to note that the total distance for the Giro (3,321km) is the shortest since 1979. So while the 2023 edition was considered extreme in its dimensions, this is a Giro with a lighter touch.

That said, difficulties can arise in different places, and one of the standout elements of this Giro is that it’s the hardest start for some time. The opening stage takes riders over tough climbs around Turin, while the haul to Oropa on stage 2 is the earliest summit finish since Mount Etna in 1989. The opening week also features a mini versions of Milan-San Remo and a trip over the Tuscan gravel of Strade Bianche, although not in as big a dose as the dramatic previous visit in 2021.

The climbing may feel less extreme, but there are still some spectacular and savage mountains stages. There are three summit finishes before we even reach the half-way mark and a monster to end the second week on the Swiss border, measuring 220km with 5,200m of elevation. The mighty Stelvio opens the final week as the Cima Coppi – the highest point of the Giro – but the other critical mountain stages come afterwards and both feature double ascents, of the Passo Brocon on stage 17 and the fearsome Monte Grappa on stage 20.

Aside from the time trialling and the climbing, there is enough to go around the sprinters, with five clear-cut opportunities, including the finale in Rome. There are a few more opportunities, too, if they can survive the scattering of small hills in the first two weeks that will tempt the ambitious among the puncheurs.

For a full look at the route, including a breakdown of each of the three weeks, head to our route announcement page.

Giro d'Italia 2024 contenders: Tadej Pogačar makes his debut

The outright favourite for the maglia rosa, Pogačar wil go up against the likes of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and Romain Bardet (dsm) for the overall title, while Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, and Remco Evenepoel have all decided to skip the Italian Grand Tour and focus on the Tour de France this July.

Tadej Pogačar will start the Giro d'Italia in 2024 as the rider to beat

Which teams are racing the Giro d’Italia 2024?

The 2024 Giro d'Italia will comprise 22 teams, 18 of which are the WorldTour teams, and two of which are set to be the automatically-invited top two second-division ProTeams. That leaves two wildcard slots for the organisers to grant to teams of their choosing.

AG2R Citroën
Alpecin-Deceuninck
Arkéa Samsic
Astana Qazaqstan
Bahrain Victorious
Bora-Hansgrohe
Cofidis
dsm-firmenich
EF Education-EasyPost
Groupama-FDJ
Ineos Grenadiers
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
Jayco AlUla
Jumbo-Visma
Lidl-Trek
Movistar
Soudal-Quick Step
UAE Team Emirates
Lotto Dstny (if they take up their invite)
Israel Premier Tech (if they take up their invite)
Wildcard invite
Wildcard invite

Giro d'Italia jerseys

Pink jersey (maglia rosa) – worn by the leader of the general classification, the rider with the lowest overall time.

Blue jersey (maglia azzurra) – worn by the leader of the mountains classification, with points awarded on all categorised climbs.

Purple jersey (maglia ciclamino) – worn by the leader of the points classification, which is based on finishing positions on all road stages. This is often a sprinter.

White jersey (maglia bianca) – worn by the best young rider, being 25 or under, on the general classification.

Additional classifications: Although there are no jerseys, there is a teams classification, a dedicated classification for the intermediate sprints found on each stage, and a 'Fuga Pinarello' prize for the most kilometres spent in breakaways.

Giro d'Italia history

The Giro d’Italia, or Tour of Italy, was first established back in 1909, around six years after the Tour de France. Like its French counterpart, the Giro was born out of an attempt to boost sales of a national sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport. The first edition almost didn’t go ahead as the organisers lacked the 25,000 lire needed to hold the race.

After a few charitable donations from other Italian businesses, which included a 3,000 lire donation from La Gazzetta’s publishing rivals, Corriere della Sera, the race went ahead and 127 riders rolled out of Milan on the 13th May at 02:53am, ready to embark on an eight-stage adventure into the unknown.

The home favourite, Luigi Ganna, won three of these stages on his way to winning the overall classification - crowning himself the first ever victor of what would soon become Italy’s most prestigious bicycle race. After his landmark victory, Ganna immortalised both himself and the tortuous race he had just won with six simple words, “Mi fa tanto male il culo!” or, “My ass hurts so much!”

Like the Tour de France did in its early years, the Giro d’Italia snowballed in popularity and by the 20s it was one of the biggest sporting events in the country. One of the Giro’s legends, Alfredo Binda, dominated during this decade, taking four overall victories before a record-breaking fifth in the early 30s.

Only two riders that followed him have managed to equal his incredible achievement and score five wins in this race, Fausto Coppi in the 40s and 50s, and Eddy Merckx in the 60s and 70s.

Coppi’s name is one of the many synonymous with the Giro d’Italia, as is his arch-rival’s, Gino Bartali. The two Italians animated some of the most memorable editions of the Giro and created a rivalry that split an entire nation, much like Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor did in France during the 60s.

Several other legends of Italian cycling followed Coppi and Bartali, each one claiming Giro titles of their own. These Italian icons include: Felice Gimondi, the second-ever rider to win all three Grand Tours, Gianni Bugno, a two-time World Champion, and of course, Marco Pantani, a rider known to many as ‘Il Pirata’.

In more recent years the Giro d’Italia has diversified its pool of winners and has seen a number of other nations flourish. Canada, Colombia, Ecuador and Australia have all taken maiden overall victories in the last 11 years, courtesy of Ryder Hesjedal (Canada) in 2012, Nairo Quintana (Colombia) in 2014, Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) in 2019, and Jai Hindley (Australia) in 2022.

The Italians have remained stalwart and ever-present in this race however; since 2010 they’ve taken four overall titles, one with Ivan Basso in 2010, one with the late Michele Scarponi in 2011, and two with the evergreen Vincenzo Nibali in 2013 and 2016.

The number of Italian wins in this race gets even greater the further back through history you go. In all, the home nation has taken an incredible 69 overall titles in this race. To put that figure into perspective the closest nation to them is Belgium who sit on a lowly seven, followed by France on six.